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January 5 - October 21, 2018
“The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands with the same pair of eyes, but to see the same land through a hundred different pairs of eyes.” —MARCEL PROUST
Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has said that “The stupidity of
people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.”
“normal” people are just crazy people you don’t know well enough.
Paul Stamets’ Host Defense MyCommunity mushroom complex
That became Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which is now a New York Times bestseller and is on its way to becoming a documentary series.
My obsession with sleep has improved my life immeasurably.
“The disease of our times is that we live on the surface. We’re like the
Platte River, a mile wide and an inch deep.” Steven Pressfield
The disease of our times is that we live on the surface. We’re like the Platte River, a mile wide and an inch deep.
Real work and real satisfaction come from the opposite of what the web provides. They come from going deep into something—the book you’re writing, the album, the movie—and staying there for a long, long time.
You should set up your life so that it is as comfortable and happy as possible—and so that it accommodates your creative work.
“Not Dead, Can’t Quit.”
I think suffering is probably the most absurd thing that I love.
Suffering is the greatest teacher I’ve ever had.
“God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century.
“Maximus to Himself,” by Charles Olson,
My billboard would say this: “Busy is a decision.” Here’s why: Of the many, many excuses people use to rationalize why they can’t do something, the excuse “I am too busy” is not only the most inauthentic, it is also the laziest.
don’t believe in “too busy.” Like I said,
busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is shorthan...
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It means you would rather be doing something else that you cons...
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That “thing” could be sleep, it could be sex, or it could be watching Game of Thrones. If we use busy as an excuse for not doing something what we are really...
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Simply put: You don’t find the time to do something; you make the time to...
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living in a society that sees bus...
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It has ...
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cultural cachet to use the excuse “I am too busy,” as a reason for not doing anything...
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The problem is this: if you let yourself off the hook for not doing something for any rea...
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If you want to do something, you can’t let being busy stand in the way, even if you are busy. Make the time to do the thin...
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Dani declared that courage
was more important than confidence.
When you are operating out of courage, you are saying that no matter how you feel about yourself or your opportunities or the outcome, you are going to take a ri...
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The more you practice doing something, the better you will get at it, and your confidence will grow over time.
You find and win a great job against a pool of very competitive candidates who may want that job as much, if not more, than you do.
Further, if you are looking for work-life balance in your 20s or 30s, you are likely in the wrong career. If
you are doing something you love, you don’t want work-life balance.
Total Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
Everything by Matt Ridley. Matt is a scientist, optimist, and forward thinker. Genome, The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, The Rational Optimist—they’re all great.
Happiness, or at least peace, is the sense that nothing is missing in this moment. No desires running amok. It’s okay to have a desire. But pick a big one and pick it carefully. Drop the small ones.
Every book I read that wasn’t assigned to me or that I didn’t read with a purpose in mind.
The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower.
The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.
Cultivate that desire by reading what you want, not what you’re “supposed to.”
Advice: Follow your intellectual curiosity over whatever is “hot” right now.
If your curiosity ever leads you to a place where society eventually wants to go, you’ll get paid extremely well.
Ignore: The news. Complainers, angry people, high-conflict people.
Anyone trying to scare you about a danger that isn’t clear and present.
Ignore the unfairness—there is no fair. Play the hand that you’re dealt to the best of your ability. People are highly consistent, so you will eventually get what you deserve and so will they. In the end, everyone gets the same judgment: death.
The Rational Optimist (one of the most recommended books by others in this book), and
